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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23043874">The Mandalorian - Into the darkness</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghosthiro62/pseuds/Ghosthiro62'>Ghosthiro62</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, The Mandalorian (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bounty Hunters, Family Drama, Family Feels, Heavy Angst, Matter of Life and Death, Original Character(s), Pandemics, Rescue, The Helmet Stays On, Virus</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 15:53:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,196</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23043874</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghosthiro62/pseuds/Ghosthiro62</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In this AU a new weapon is developed in the Imperial labs under the direction of Dr Pershing. It is a sophisticated android but due to some circumstances the android is missing from its storage unit. Mando is sent to retrieve a valuable human-like android from a mysterious planet. Little does he know that he is walking into great danger</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Somewhere on the planet Eden a new guest arrives from the depths of the cosmos. It arrives in a form of large meteorite that breaks up in pieces as it soars through the atmosphere. No one suspects that a traveler hitched a ride on the rock from space. It’s a deadly virus for which the residents of Eden have no defense. At first, they blame the air. It’s an old idea, a poison in the ether, a danger carried in by the wind. A strange haze is seen drifting through town on that first night, the night the trouble begins. It arrives like weather, or like smoke, some say later, but no one can locate any fire. Some blame the drought, which has been bleeding away the lake for years, and browning the air with dust. Whatever this is, it comes over them quietly: a sudden drowsiness, a closing of the eyes. Most of the victims are found in their beds. </p><p>When Sean unlocks the door, he finds his sister Mara still lying where he left her that morning, her body curled toward the wall in the top bunk, her black boots still protruding from the sheets. “Mara?” he says softly. Outside, the sun is sinking. The sky is clear and turning pink. Sean switches on the overhead light. “Mara?” he says again. But Mara does not wake. Not to the sound of Sean’s pleading, or to the louder voices of the two paramedics who soon detect—through her badly wrinkled dress—that she is breathing, at least, that she still has a pulse.<br/>Mara sleeps through the screaming of her mother. She sleeps through the screeching of the crickets in the pine trees outside, and through the cool night air on her skin.<br/>She sleeps through sunrise, and she sleeps through sunset. And yet, in those first few hours, the doctors can find nothing else wrong. She looks like an ordinary girl sleeping an ordinary sleep. But this much is known to be true: over the course of many hours, her shallow breaths turn gradually shallower. It is hard to say afterward why the final beats of her heart go unrecorded by those machines.</p><p>The nightmare had started. At the beginning, people stood on street corners and shouted about the end of the world. <br/>The grocery stores were soon empty, the shelves sucked clean like chicken bones. <br/>The freeways clogged immediately. People heard the news and they wanted to move. Families piled into minivans and crossed state lines. They scurried in every direction like small animals caught suddenly under a light. <br/>But, of course, there was nowhere on earth to go</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>nternal chronometer activated. BEGIN. Electricity flooded through circuits, a power surge racing through a billion neural pathways. Sensors awakened, producing a flood of data—and with it came questions. Who am I? Her internal programming finished the tedious two-second-long initialization procedures and poured out an answer. She was HRP-4C, a droid, a sophisticated droid. Where am I? A microsecond later, images from her exterior sensors snapped into focus. HRP-4C had no sense of smell, and no eyes and ears as humans understood them, but her optical and auditory sensors were far more efficient, able to absorb data in a broader range than any living being. She froze a static image of her surroundings and studied it, collating more answers. She had awakened in some sort of large laboratory complex, white and metal, sterile, and—according to her temperature sensors—colder than humans generally preferred. There were a number of humans in the lab -- they were all staring at her as if she was an exotic animal. One of the humans was standing in front of a large screen that displayed an orange logo and words “Nevarro Robotics Works - project Mimi”.  It was a pudgy balding man in his fifties who called himself Dr. Pershing, a senior scientist in charge of the project.</p><p>"Let me introduce you to Mimi, our latest creation," he started the presentation. “Mimi is our newest HRP-4C series android. She will revolutionize our ability to hunt down our enemies. Mimi measures 5 feet, 2 inches tall and weighs 95 pounds including a selenium battery pack. She has a completely realistic look representing a young light-skinned human female and she is imbued with Dark Force energy. Our gynoid can move completely naturally, utilizing 30 body motors and another eight dedicated to facial expressions can also respond to speech using speech recognition software, and is capable of recognizing ambient sounds. Mimi can also sing, using the vocal synthesizer Vocaloid. Additionally, she can be modified to include items suitable for a specific mission. In military configuration, her body can be equipped with secret compartments for cutting tools, blasters, neuro cords, explosives, etc. This capability makes her perfectly suitable for assasination, spy and other assignments."</p><p>"Hello, Mimi. Do you know who I am?" asked the human standing in front of her. <br/>"Good Morning, Dr. Pershing. How can I help you?" she responded in a melodic voice</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Following successful testing, the Mimi project was deemed completed. The HRP-4C unit was deactivated and placed in storage for future use on Arvala-7. Mimi was asleep in the dark confines in her storage unit until , one day, the Nikto mercenaries, working for the Hutt cartel, launched a surprise raid on the storage facility. As they ransacked the place, Niktos accidentally activated the dormant HRP-4C. “I am here.” Few milliseconds passed before Mimi processed her surroundings. “Intruders?” Mimi’s system status was elevated to the highest alert possible. Her targeting hardware locked onto the heat signature of humanoid figures in front of her. “Look! It’s moving!” screamed one of Niktos not sure what to do. “Protect mode” - Mimi raised her hand and a blaster bolt erupted from her finger hitting one of the Niktos in the head. “Target destroyed.” As it went down, Mimi fired again, hitting another Nikto. The remaining bandits panicked and ran. They did not expect resistance of any sort. </p><p>Mimi looked around the cavernous warehouse. In the bright light of halogen lamps she saw stacks of nondescript crates lining up the walls. “Are there others like me in these boxes?” It was only a momentary curiosity. She needed to get out of this dreary place. “Perhaps, some clothes would be helpful,” she thought. She found some worker’s overalls. “These will do for now.”</p><p>She ran through the warehouse and out of the open blast doors. The place was no longer guarded. She saw a landing pad with few small courier ships with orange logo of Nevarro Robotics Works sitting next to the warehouse. She climbed into the nearest ship, jumped into the pilot’s seat and engaged the drive. She did not care where the ship would take her as long as left this world behind. As ship automatically jumped into hyperspace, it appeared to be heading to the desert planet of Jakku.</p><p>Alarms blared at the Imperial labs. “Red Alert! The perimeter of the facility on Arvala-7 was breached. ”<br/>“Sir, we are getting reports regarding a break-in at our warehouse on Arvala-7!” Duty officer reported to Dr. Pershing. “Assessment team, dispatched to the site, found HRP-4C unit to be missing</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I have a job for you.” - Greef Karga told the Mandalorian . “I know that you have been lucky and successful with your deliveries but this is a big one.”<br/>“I'm listening.”<br/>“I am glad that you are paying attention. Of course, everyone needs money and always, especially people like us.“ - Greef grunted and scratched a long scar on his forehead. - “Payment is more than decent. Will you take the job?”<br/>“I would like more details.” - Mando never took on a contract without knowing everything about it that was possible.<br/>“Watching out, as always?” - the old man smiled knowingly. - “It's good. The job, in principle, is not difficult, but profitable. Have you seen people recently leaving my office?”<br/>“No.” - Mando shook his head.<br/>“Serious fellows, I'll tell you.. Do you understand what I mean?”</p><p>“No puck. Face to face. Direct commission. Deep pocket." Greef Karga cryptically told the bounty hunter everyone knew as The Mandalorian. “Go to see what the client wants.”</p><p>The Imperial compound met The Mandalorian with a closed gate. A long stalk of a gatekeeper droid slowly descended to face him. </p><p>“What do you want?” a creaky metallic voice asked Mando. An ID was shown and the gate slowly slid open.. Once Mando was inside, a stormtrooper sergeant ushered the bounty hunter into a conference room where an older man in a dark uniform was sitting at the head of a long table. He gestured for Mando to sit.</p><p>“My name is not as important as your purpose here. As you may know, we need to retrieve a valuable asset. We plan to be very generous in our reward for this bounty. If you deliver the bounty in one year, you will receive a bantamo of Bescar steel. Do you agree to the terms?”</p><p>Mando was duly impressed. He just nodded to the Imperial but he was smiling behind his helmet. This much Bescar steel will go a long way to support the Foundlings for the Mandalorian clans. He went to work right away</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The black curtain of empty space, dotted with bright sparkles of stars, resembled a velvet coverlet generously embroidered with pearls. There was nothing here - the open space between stellar systems remained lifeless for billions of years. Wild open spaces not marked on electronic maps, infinity illuminated by the dim light of constellations. A place lost in time and space, where there is nothing but particles of light, stone dust and silence, an unknown point of being, which is at rest from the beginning of time, one of those for which the word "emptiness" fits perfectly. It could remain so until the death of the galaxy, </p><p>Stars blinked and Razor Crest popped out from hyperspace. The ship shuddered as Mando started his approach maneuvers. The space around turned into flames as Razor Crest descended toward its target. The fob locator took the Mandalorian  to the planet of Eden officially banned from landings due to the pandemic that turned once beautiful tourist world into a decaying ruin. It was now truly a place that most people simply called The Damned Planet.</p><p>The reason for such an unpleasant nickname was the terrible smell of decay, invariably floating in the air, and the panorama of the planet, littered with debris, debris and the ruins of cities in abundance, only justified this name.</p><p>The Damned Planet.</p><p>The forgotten planet has not yet been erased from the galactic map only because of the numerous requests of people who have lost loved ones on it, among whom were very influential personalities.</p><p>“Wanted to say something?”<br/>
“How far?”</p><p>The companion looked into Dyn's piercing eyes. It inspired a certain sense of calm, especially if you know that the bounty hunter did not come for you. The one who bore the name of Dyn Djarin, according to Sean, looked exactly what a bounty hunter should look like: tall, large, muscular, always collected and deadly.</p><p>“I will tell you when we are close,” - Dyn reassures Sean, stepping forward and glancing through the once tall and majestic buildings.</p><p>Now everything was almost completely destroyed and seemed to be the miserable remnants of one of the many cities of this damned world. Piles of rocks, long dead trees and the general atmosphere of devastation and desolation - that’s all that the dead metropolis could now boast of. It was in it, somewhere behind the destroyed skyscrapers, that the target of the bounty hunter was located.</p><p>Despite his seriously heavy build, the bounty hunter moved easily and naturally. Even the battered armor did not constrain him. Dense plates made of Bescar steel wore worn and burnt black and red colors. These were the colors of the clan to which Dyn once belonged. In addition to the numerous devices built into the armor, the image of the bounty hunter was supplemented by a jetpack hanging behind his shoulders and a heavy amban rifle from the last war.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Your business is not to worry, Sean,” said Dyn sternly.</p><p>Nevertheless, he raised his left hand to his chest and with his right fingers tapped the panel on his wrist. A moment later, a transparent map appeared on the face of the hunter, on which a bright red circle stood out, the same ones were located north and northwest.</p><p>““We are close,” the picture disappeared, and Dyn dropped his hand.</p><p>“I would like to believe,” Sean grumbled, with his hands in the pockets of his warm jacket. He did not like to wear armor, even during the war he was always reluctant to accept the need to protect himself. And now ... the war is already over.</p><p>“Still regret coming?” - Dyn asked.</p><p>It was time to get serious. Dyn went ahead, picking up a rifle. He brought the weapon into combat readiness expecting trouble to come from any direction.</p><p>“No,” Sean answered a little after a moment, confidently. - “I have never regretted my choice.”</p><p>“Seriously, Sean.” Dyn stopped and turned to his companion. - “If the locals decide to have a bite, shoot. It doesn't matter who is in front of you - just shoot.”</p><p>Sean had known Dyn for a long time and later, life brought them together again. The circumstances were such that Sean then needed money, and Dyn, by old friendship, offered a way to earn it. <br/>Over the past time, Sean has long been accustomed to the difficult character of his friend. Like all Mandalorians, Dyn Djarin, the bounty hunter, from birth was a warrior. All the inhabitants of the distant Mandalore were born with only one purpose - to kill. If no war was planned on the starry horizon, then Mandalorians, dividing into clans, fought with each other. Due to their nature, reasons for war were very common. On this planet they could have been killed both for a mocking look and for an unsuccessful joke.</p><p>Outwardly, the sons of the harsh Mandalore were very much like ordinary people. However, Mandalorian’s body resources exceeded human ones: they are more hardy and strong. Mandalorians were proud of a higher pain threshold, an accelerated reaction, and more sensitive organs of perception. Born warriors and ideal killers.</p><p>Those few of the children of the destroyed planet who were lucky enough to survive were scattered across the galaxy. Therefore, Sean, also deprived of relatives, immediately agreed to the offer of an old friend.<br/>“Sean!” - called his friend. - “Not the best time you have chosen for reflection, it is better to get your blaster out of its holster and be on your guard.”</p><p>Only now, Sean noticed that they almost reached the ruins of a city whose name no one remembered anymore - the inhabitants of the other planets were glad to forget about it. Danger was hanging in the air. Sean nodded absently and, hastily unfastening his holster, drew his weapon. The locals were close. The hunters have not met anyone, but this did not mean that locals did not know about the presence of strangers.</p><p>The first destroyed houses turned out to be very close, turning to the unexpected guests the dark gaps of their miraculously surviving windows. Once, in order to make out the upper floors, one had to lift one's head up strongly, and now ... now there are fewer, much less floors.<br/>A dull longing pinched Sean's heart when he looked at the city, familiar to him from childhood, but changed almost beyond recognition.</p><p>“Are you okay, Sean?” - Dyn's gruff voice again saved Sean from unbearably heavy thoughts, serving him as a beacon in the black, enveloping fog of apathy. </p><p>“Yes,” - Sean shook his head, dismissing gloomy thoughts. - “Returning home is not always fun.”</p><p>“Then let's finish work soon.”</p><p>“Good,” Sean agreed, but the dead city called him, asked him to return and ... stay.<br/>“Sean, pay attention! - a heavy, armored fist poked Shawn in the shoulder, and the man almost fell over.<br/>“Pay attention or go back to the ship!” - growled Dyn, looking into the misty, brown eyes of his companion.<br/>Sorry... is all Sean could say, rubbing his bruised shoulder. He knew that Dyn knew of his experiences, but he did not blame the companion for being rude.</p><p>“Cover your back,” - Dyn ordered. He went ahead, grabbing the rifle with both hands and cursing himself for allowing a friend to leave the ship.</p><p>Mentally cursing himself for being absent-minded, Sean followed the Mandalorian, now and then looking around. All around him were silent and ruined houses overgrown with wild vegetation.</p><p>The Mandalorian moved quickly and silently. Precisely tailored armor made from Bescar steel made no sound. Suddenly, Dyn froze in place and and listened. Sean stopped dead in his tracks, crouching and glancing around nervously.</p><p>“Three, ahead,” - came the quiet voice from Sean’s comlink. - “Don’t start shooting unless you need to.” <br/>Sean followed the Mandalorian and saw three people sitting on the stones, however, the similarity with the representatives of the human race was only external.</p><p>In tattered, blood-stained clothes, dirty, shaggy, with traces of decomposition in open areas of grayish skin, the locals stared at the guests of their planet with carnivorous looks. Looking at the elderly man, whose eyes were covered in a whitish film, Sean cringed, as if from a cold wind, and felt cold sweat running across his soaked back. At the same time, he felt sorry and feared the creatures that appeared before him. Victims of circumstances, they were not to blame for the thirst for blood that woke up under the influence of the virus, just like in their death.</p><p>The story of Damned Planet, tragic and cruel, has long troubled Sean. As a result of a pandemic that suddenly broke out on the planet, people turned into eternally hungry killing machines. They rushed at everyone, biting into trembling bodies and spreading the infection that struck them.</p><p>Soon it was too late to do anything, the number of survivors was practically reduced to zero, and they could not find vaccines against an unknown disease. Finally, the Government of the Republic decided to isolate the planet and leave the infected to themselves.</p><p>Although the initial decision was to destroy, the relatives of the victims, who received support from the defenders of the rights of intelligent creatures, nevertheless forced the Government to relent and allow a “new life form” to exist. If any ship was approaching the planet, the pilot would be informed that they would be violating the quarantine. After which the ship received a warning and an invitation to proceed to the nearest station, where a very unpleasant check was waiting for all its passengers. If the ship did not accept such an intrusive invitation, then military fighters were sent for it. They either destroyed the target or escorted to the station. If signs of an epidemic were detected, all patients were returned to the planet, without any hope for the future.</p><p>But bounty hunters have their own rules. Thanks to the connections and the Guild membership, the Razor Crest was able to proceed without much problem. So, thanks to such frauds, Sean now walked on his home planet, once beautiful and the only place in the galaxy that he could once call home.</p><p>It was the thoughts of returning home that tormented Sean's mind from the moment that Dyn told him about the mission. The Sean initially accepted the Dyn’s offer to stay on Razor Crest, but then, despite the Dyn’s warning, he nevertheless went with him. Dyn, of course, did not want to take Sean with him, but when he heard that an old friend wanted to look in the face of his “demons” and get rid of nightmares, he agreed.</p><p>And now, Sean walked around the city in which he was born. A city where perhaps his family still existed, abandoned when Sean went to war. The man again drove away gloomy thoughts. He hastily averted his eyes from the infected, as if fearing to recognize one of them.<br/>“I warned you,” Dyn said easily, understanding his friend’s thoughts. “To face your fears is far from as easy as many think, buddy.”<br/>“I can handle it,” - Sean muttered through his teeth, watching the three locals interested in the new arrivals.<br/>The infected people rose up and, staggering slightly, moved after the bounty hunters, clearly wanting to say hello.<br/>“They are tailing us,” - Sean whispered, directing the blaster between the eyes of an elderly man, but not daring to press the trigger.</p><p>I’ll figure it out.</p><p>The Mandalorian swiftly turned around and, easily jumping to the approaching infected, waved his hand. With a hiss, the blade that appeared above the bounty hunter’s left fist gleaned dully with a bluish light, after which the head of the nearest man fell to the ground with a thud. The body left to stand jerked several times and after a moment fell nearby, dropping a few drops of thick, darkened blood.</p><p>Dyn easily cut off the arm of the same old man reaching for him, and the long blade, so beloved by the hunter, pierced the gray head through and through. Having pushed off the limp body with his foot, the bounty hunter shifted to the side, avoiding the sluggish, slow attack from the remaining infected man still upright, and another head rolled over the ground.</p><p>Having admired his favorite toy, he wiped his weapon on the rags of the corpse lying closer than the rest and sharply clenched his fist, allowing the deadly blade to hide in his armor, as if it had never happened.</p><p>“You could just shoot.” - Sean covered his mouth with his hand and turned away, not wanting to look at the traces of brutal violence.</p><p>“So that all their friends come running to the noise? Leave your pacifism already, dock, otherwise you won’t last long.”</p><p>Sean wanted to get away from the corpses as soon as possible, and he took a few hesitant steps forward.</p><p>“Luck is a useful thing, but extremely unreliable. Leaving your life to the edge of a blind chance is a bad idea.”</p><p>Sean said nothing. Now he was angry with his friend because he could not or simply did not want to understand his feelings. For the Mandalorian this was just another planet on which to do the work. But the problem was not only that. Dyn generally rarely listened to his own and, especially, to other people's feelings, always guided only by cold calculation. Absorbed in his sudden outburst of anger, Sean nearly crashed into the back of the bounty hunter.</p><p>“We found it,” said Dyn shortly, looking at a small ship, half-buried into the ground a few tens of meters ahead. Activating his thermal imager, the Mandalorian quickly scanned the ship. Everything was dark. He did not know that the girl he was seeking was an android manufactured by the Imperial Labs on the planet Nevarro. It was an advanced model highly prized by Moff Gideon. </p><p>The Mandalorian carefully examined the deep furrow left during the landing of the ship stretched quite far, which could indicate a lot: perhaps the ship was malfunctioning, or the pilot was in a hurry, or was wounded, or maybe could not stand the load and was disconnected.</p><p>But be that as it may, it was time to go in. “Have to break through. - Dyn nodded towards the infected people swarming near the ship.</p><p>The inhabitants of the Damned Planet, even after their so-called rebirth, continued to imitate human life. It would seem that for some reason they wandered through the streets littered with debris, looked out from the broken houses and incoherently mumbled at each other, trying to talk. But as soon as they saw someone who was different from them, bloodthirsty instincts prevailed and the infected forgot about everything except warm, fresh meat.</p><p>“You will take a look at the ship, and I will distract the locals,” suggested Dyn without hesitation, realizing how hard it would be for Sean if it was necessary to shoot.</p><p>“No.” - Sean shook his head, pulling his worn jacket with many pockets. “I will stay, Dyn.”</p><p>- “Sure?”</p><p>“It's time to face the demons.” - Sean smiled tightly.</p><p>“It's your right.” - With these words, the Dyn held out his rifle to his lightly armed friend, and he quickly ran to the ship.</p><p>Dyn tried to hide behind the wreckage, but he still had to overcome the last ten meters to the ship in open terrain and do it very quickly. Stopping at a huge stone block - the last of the visible shelters, the bounty hunter turned around, looking at his old friend. Sean ran the rifle from side to side, after which he raised his hand and showed the captain a thumb - everything is fine.</p><p>Looking out from behind his cover, Dyn estimated the distance to the target. Without hesitation, he rushed forward, activated the jet pack with the help of a mechanism built into the glove.</p><p>The device, designed for long jumps and short flights, loudly buzzed and, spitting out a tail of smoke, sent its owner far ahead. Soaring upward, Dyn quickly overcame the distance to the ship. He reduced the power of the jet pack and, gently landing at the closed doors, tore off a small metal disk from his belt. With a slight movement, sticking it directly to the tightly closed doors, the Mandalorian pressed the red button in the center. The jet pack roared again, and the bounty hunter soared into the air just at the moment when below an explosion thundered.</p><p>No sooner had Dyn's feet touch the ground, when he snatched up a blaster and threw himself into a jagged gap, ignoring the cloud of dust raised by the explosion.<br/>The helmet reliably protected the airways of the bounty hunters and the eyes. In addition, an image passed through several filters and giving a clear picture was displayed on the internal display. Passing a relatively spacious room, the bounty hunter squeezed between the seats ripped from their seats and rushed to the passenger cabin.</p><p>Inside, curled up in a ball, was a young human girl. She was clearly scared and, probably, in shock. “Can you walk?” She nodded. “Let’s go”</p><p>“Found it,” - Dyn activated a call to Greef Karga. <br/>- “Alive?” The projection asked in a calm voice. <br/>- “Yes”.<br/>- “Customers will be happy, I'm waiting at the base.”</p><p>There was treacherously little time left - the slow-moving locals, drawn in by the noise, were about to catch up. They must already be tired of cautiously spinning around the rumbling hatch and they are just about to look inside. But Sean didn’t shoot, so there is still time. Dyn and the girl almost got to the hatch when the alarming rumble of a plasma rifle made him curse and run.</p><p>The barely visible rustle made Sean turn around sharply. A moment, and the dark barrel of the rifle stared into the forehead of a little girl. Sean wavered, and the weapon dropped itself - he recognized the child. Time and the infection that captured the planet, of course, did their job, but he easily recognized the girl, because Sean always loved his little sister Rebecca and always took care of her. The man trembled, looking at the girl's gray face. In her alien, film-wrapped eyes, there was still something so familiar, so dear.</p><p>The girl's thin hand slowly began to rise, and Sean instinctively took aim at his sister. A real whirlwind was raging in the head of a man of mixed fear, regret, bitterness, guilt and love. Meanwhile, Rebecca extended a hand to her brother, in which was a shabby and slightly wrinkled box.</p><p>Sean's heart sank in his chest as the carved lid slowly opened up. The first notes of an unpretentious melody, sounding from a music box, made tears come out in his brown eyes. It was Sean who presented this bauble to his sister on her seventh birthday, and she never parted with a gift ... even now. Sean leaned forward, obeying an irresistible desire to touch his seemingly irretrievably lost past.</p><p>Sean could not stop himself from touching his sister’s icy palm. The girl suddenly squeezed his wrist. Frightened by the inanimate cold of pale gray skin, felt even through the thick fabric of his jacket, Sean stepped back and drew back his hand.</p><p>Out of surprise, he pressed the trigger, and a plasma bolt hit directly into the ground under his feet, knocking a man onto his back. Sean tried to get up, but Rebecca, who was nearby, was already biting sharp teeth into his wrist. Sean's mouth opened in a silent scream when he felt his sister's teeth penetrate his skin and warm blood began to flow down his arm.</p>
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<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Raising a cloud of dust, Dyn landed a stone's throw from Sean.

</p>
<p>- “Step aside!” - A bluish blade readily appeared over Dyn's fist, but an old friend suddenly stood between him and the infected child.</p><p>“Don't,” Sean said quietly, and his voice trembled. - “Do not.” - Already more resolutely he repeated.</p><p>- We do not have time for games! - The bounty hunter tried to push his friend aside, but he suddenly saw a bloody palm.</p><p>“No,” Shawn repeated again, and Dyn could not contain the dirty curse.“Hey, buddy,” - It seemed to Sean that sadness flashed in the voice of the bounty hunter, distorted by the helmet, and was immediately replaced by habitual determination. - “You have to say goodbye to your hand!”</p><p>The blade flashed, and Sean hurriedly stepped back. “I found my sister,” Sean said, continuing to smile weakly. His face was noticeably pale. “Now we will always be together, and you ... just leave. After the war I did not know what I wanted, and now, now I understand everything - I want to be with my family.</p><p>The man turned his back to the bounty hunter and, taking his sister by the hand, walked away.</p><p>Havard hesitated only a few moments, after which he took aim at the back of the head of an old friend. Sean and his sister were slowly moving away, but Dyn did not shoot. His finger, which had pulled the trigger countless times, now hesitantly shook. Finally, the Mandalirian lowered his weapon and raised his helmet shield. As if sensing this, Sean turned around. So did his sister.</p><p>“Thank you,” Sean said soundlessly, and tears reappeared in his eyes. “Thanks for everything.” Goodbye. He turned and walked away. The Mandalorian silently watched as his old friend, leave and leave forever.<br/>
“Goodbye,” said Dyn, watching the two figures dissolve into the gray mass of the locals ignoring them.</p><p>The infected did not care about those like them or those who would soon become such. But the bounty hunter was of lively interest to them in the full sense of the word.</p><p>Dyn grabbed the girl, picked up the rifle from the ground and rushed off with wide leaps, leaving the slow locals behind. The oppressive void in the hunter's soul quickly filled with anger, and he hardly suppressed the desire to turn around and destroy several dozen pursuers.</p><p>Sean made his choice.</p>
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